Feb 20, 2025
by Kim Gillan
Kim served in the Montana legislature 1996 to 2012 from Billings and professionally she worked
in health care policy and regulatory affairs. Kim lives in Red Lodge
Serving 16 years in the Montana legislature taught me much about the do’s and don’ts of
crafting a state budget. Legislators are charged with deciding how to use hard-earned Montana
taxpayer dollars to make government work for the people. It was our job as legislators –
Republicans and Democrats, rural and urban – to balance the state’s budget and ensure that
every penny of Montanans’ tax dollars was wisely spent to provide needed services to improve
our state.
We faced tough decisions to balance the pressing, sometimes competing needs while ensuring
efficiency and serving the people. And, like all good farmers, we made sure to keep grain in the
bin just in case we had a rainy day and faced an economic turndown. In my opinion, our
legislative responsibility was accountability to our folks back home and letting them know how
taxpayer monies were spent.
But just recently we learned that Governor Gianforte has set up – off the books and out of the
public’s eye – what could be considered his own personal spending account by skimming
interest off of federal dollars ARPA) that are meant to help build our state. A newspaper
headline read: “Governor’s office controls an unrestricted interest fund worth $86 million, and
counting.” With no public or legislative oversight, the Governor's office decides how to spend
interest from federal dollars on what may be his pet projects. Rep. Terry Falk, a Kalispell
Republican who chairs the General Government Joint Appropriations Subcommittee, called the
interest fund “inappropriate” and “concerning.”
The rules of the game seem pretty simple to me – if you use public taxpayer money, you let the
public and their elected representatives know when and how you’re going to use it. That’s called
transparency and accountability, and ensures that the money is well spent – and if it should be
spent at all or sent back to taxpayers.
Let’s not forget that Federal dollars are taxes paid by Montanans and everyone else across the
United States. And all governors have to play by the same rules when accepting federal
dollars–including the ARPA dollars, which were intended to jumpstart the economy post-
pandemic. However, it seems that Governor Gianforte may be playing by a different set of rules
and making decisions without public and/or legislative oversight.
I’ve been involved in public policy and politics for a long time and have never seen anything so
brazen. Setting politics aside, I’m troubled that the Governor's Office is using the interest
generated by taxpayer money to create a fund with no oversight. As a former legislator, I
cannot imagine a governor hoarding almost $100 million of the public's money when Montana
has pressing needs.
It’s time to hold our governor and his administration accountable– either give the money back to
taxpayers or listen to the public and spend it to truly help Montanans. It’s that simple. It’s our
money. And these elected officials work for us.
Sources:
Montana budget office controls unrestricted interest fund
ARPA State Fiscal Recovery Fund Allocations
Reach Kim at
